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The Sundance Film Festival received a record number of submissions this year: 17,435. On Wednesday, the festival revealed its 2024 lineup, which includes 82 feature films and eight episodic programs.

The celebrity list will likely generate a lot of excitement for festivalgoers — Pedro Pascal, Kristen Stewart, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx, Jesse Eisenberg, Will Ferrell, Oprah and Woody Harrelson, to name a few.

“It’s the discovery part, the people who are going to be making movies for (the next) 40 years,” said John Nein, who has been a Sundance Film Festival programmer for 20 years. “Go and try something that you don’t know.”

Rep. Moore: Republican ‘quibbling’ stalls spending bills ahead of January deadline

Republican “quibbling” has prevented House lawmakers from advancing conservative spending bills to the Senate, Rep. Blake Moore said Wednesday, putting Congress on a path toward a third funding deadline scramble in January after near-misses in September and November.

Moore is confident his conference will pass the remaining funding packages before the current extensions expire on Jan. 19 and Feb. 2, but he shares the frustration of his colleagues and constituents at their party’s inability to work together on shared objectives.

“We’re quibbling over these bills and making them exactly what every single Republican in the House wants, when we just need to finalize them and send them over to the Senate,” Moore told the Deseret News on Wednesday.

Read more about Rep. Blake Moore's call for Republican unity on government funding.

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FROM OUR SPONSOR THIS IS THE PLACE HERITAGE PARK

Take a Step Back in Time with Candlelight Christmas at This is the Place.

Visit Father Christmas, enjoy the live Nativity in the quiet of the Village, and feel the warm fire while listening to the Heritage Village Carolers. Enjoy candle making and letters to Santa. Get all your holiday shopping done when you visit the Gift Shop and ZCMI Mercantile. Click for details.

Health

Mysterious dog illness has now spread to 14 states (Deseret News)

Drug shortages put Americans in hard spot. What’s on the list? (Deseret News)

Faith

Should a religious charter school get public funding? (Deseret News)

Of President Holland’s health and recovery, Elder Renlund writes, ‘God is in the details’ (Church News)

Economy

‘Unregulated danger zone?’ Phantom debt from fast-growing buy now, pay later usage could be worse than anyone knows (Deseret News)

How much did Utah’s population grow in the past year? (Deseret News)

Weber and Tooele Counties

Ogden Valley project gets preliminary OK amid worries area will become another Park City (KSL)

The West

Are your lights on and are they on for the military? Why the power grid is at risk (Deseret News)

Valerie Hudson: A reckoning is coming for California on transgender policy (Deseret News)

The Nation

Virginia house explodes after police bring search warrant. Here’s what we know (Deseret News)

How to survive an entire afternoon without electricity (Deseret News)

The World

Gaza declared one of the ‘most dangerous places’ to be by UN agency, Article 99 of UN Charter invoked (Deseret News)

Ukraine war: Zelensky speaks out as US stand-off imperils war effort (BBC)

Sports

Photo of the Week

South Salt Lake Police Chief Jack Carruth presents a folded “thin blue line” flag to Liz Romrell, widow of fallen South Salt Lake police officer David Romrell, and their son, Jackson, at the city’s police station on Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. Officer Romrell was killed in the line of duty in 2018. | Spenser Heaps